FALCONIO, DIOMEDE: Roman Catholic archbishop and apostolic delegate;
b. at Pescocostanzo (73 m. n. of Naples), Italy, Sept. 20, 1842. He entered
the Franciscan Order in 1860, and five years later was sent to the United
States as missionary. In 1866 he was ordained priest, and was professor of
philosophy and vice-president of St. Bonaventure's College, Allegheny, Pa.
(1866), professor of theology and secretary of the Franciscan Province of the
Immaculate Conception (1867), and president of the College and Seminary
of St. Bonaventure (1868-71). He was secretary and administrator of the
cathedral at Harbor Grace, N. F., 1871-82, and after a year in the United
States returned to Italy and was elected provincial of the Franciscans in the
Abruzzi. He was later reelected, and in 1888 was commissary and
visitor-general for the province of Puglia, becoming in 1889 synodal
examiner for the diocese of Aquila and commissary and visitor-general for
the Franciscan province of Puglia. He was procurator-general of his order
and visitor-general in various Franciscan provinces from 1889 to 1892, when
he was consecrated titular bishop of Lacedonia, being elevated, three years
later, to be archbishop of Acerenza and Matera in Basilicata. He was
Apostolic Delegate to Canada 1899-1902, and since 1902 has been apostolic
delegate to the United States.